If you’d like to do something this Halloween that doesn’t involve scaring the unholy crap out of yourself, I humbly suggest you download a copy of Double Fine’s new RPG – Costume Quest. Warning: this game transformed me into an 8-year old boy, and I am no longer able to legally work in the United States. IT WAS WORTH IT.
Afraid Of The Dark
Get into the Halloween spirit with this festive post where I relive a bunch of the night terrors I had as a child. Woo! Party (while screaming bloody murder for my parents)!
The Lion, The Witch, and the Progressive Enhancement: CRAZY DELICIOUS
When I am not being angry at BioWare or working feverishly into the night coming up with Star Wars-themed sexual innuendo, I sometimes show up to my day job as a web developer. One concept that we frequently use at work to make websites usable and friendly to everyone is called progressive enhancement. Put simply, […]
Nerdy-Five
OMG I’M OLD. When did this happen? Why don’t birthdays feel like they used to when I was a kid? WHAT IS MY TAUNTAUN’S NAME?
Do the Evolution
What if we imagine the original D&D game as the evolutionary link between wargaming and modern roleplaying games of all sorts? Every derivative game has some part of the original, signs of its ancestry. Like with organisms, variations from the original are introduced in the process of creating a game. Further, more game “offspring” tend to be produced than the gaming environment can support. Traits that ensure survival in a given environment become more common in descendants.
Burlap Sex Alone Does Not A Relationship Make
Listen, BioWare. You know you’re the only development studio for me. It was never that your games were the prettiest. They’re nice, but you never made me save vs. pants-change like, say, God Of War 3. It was never that your gameplay is the smoothest or most innovative. Don’t get me wrong, Mass Effect 2 was a nice step up from its predecessor, with its powers and equipment systems all nicely overhauled and refined and that superfun mining minigame. That’s not why every BioWare game is a day one purchase for me. But you’re screwing up the main reason you’re awesome. Quit it.
The PAX Report
Like all good things, PAX ended. Due to required nuptial witnessing, it ended on Saturday for me. Oh, I’m not bitter. In fact, I feel privileged that PAX is local. With all this good stuff happening before, during, and after the show, it’s sure to become one of my yearly rituals. Here are some high points of my trip to the show.
Beware the Siren Song
As more and more players come to Dungeons & Dragons from a video game background, they bring with them a very specific sensibility. The result is that the teacher becomes the student, and D&D players begin to integrate certain aspects that had previously only lived inside video games. For example, video games tend to deal in something I’d call “sense language,” where a scene is set by describing (or displaying) what you see and what you hear. In the same way, dungeon masters don’t talk about the three kobolds, but rather the “three emaciated lizard creatures with fanged dragon heads, hissing at each other in their horrid tongue, turning jagged blades in their clawed hands.” This is immersive, and that’s unquestionably a good thing. Unfortunately, not all of the adoptions are.
Official Guide to Stalking Vanir at Gen Con, 2010 Edition
It’s the most wonderful time of the year once again. No, not Christmas. The Four Days of Gaming, aka RPG Chanukah, aka Nerd Kwanzaa, but known to most muggles simply as Gen Con. I’m particularly excited to make my yearly trek to Indianapolis this year, as I’ve made lots of new friends (and am ecstatic […]
Dear Roger Ebert
I’ve always admired Roger Ebert. Though I disagree with his assertion that videogames can’t be art, I still deeply respect his opinion. As long as he finds out for sure, that is.
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